Clip Joint On the Road (Island)

Matt LaPorta

The Clippers avoided a sweep at the hands of the PawSox by salvaging game 4 this afternoon.  Eric Berger (1-1, 2.25), who has taken Zach McAllister's spot in the Columbus rotation, produced his second straight strong start at AAA.  Though the 26 year old right hander had compiled a 7.84 in 16 career games at Columbus coming into the season, he has been just delightful thus far in 2012.  This afternoon he tossed six innings of 5 hit 2 run (1 earned) ball with a walk and 4 K's to pick up his first win of the year at any level.  Scott Barnes (4.98), still transitioning to the bullpen, followed Berger and allowed a run in 2 innings to drop his relief ERA to 4.76.  Chris Ray (2.08) closed, pitched a perfect 9th, struck out 2 and notched his 6th save.

Matt LaPorta (.333) provided the offensive firepower by launching his first road homer of the season as part of a 5 run 6th inning.  The long ball, Matty's 10th overall, came after back-to-back errors by Pedro Ciriaco and Nate Spears leading to all 5 runs being tallied as unearned.  Gregorio Petit (.212) doubled to begin the frame, one of his two hits on the afternoon.

Former Indian Justin Germano (4-2) took the loss despite lowering his ERA to 1.99.

The Clips return home tomorrow to take on the Bryce Harper-less (I feel a bit cheated) Syracuse Chiefs at 6:35p.  Corey Kluber is scheduled to start.

Other Minor Points of Interest --

Akron
Giovanni Soto (3-2, 4.46) got the start and the loss for the Aeros in Erie.  Soto has had a feast or famine season with 3 excellent outings and 3 of the craptastic variety.  Tonight was one of the latter as he failed to make it out of the 5th inning, putting 12 men on base and surrendering 4 earned runs.

Lake County
Francisco Lindor (.312) continued to set the Midwest League on fire, jerking his 4th home run and driving in 5 tonight against the Great Lakes Loons.  Lindor is batting .349 with 10 RBI, 3 steals and a .992 OPS over his past 10 games.  While he's not putting up numbers quite as extravagant as Francisco's, Luigi Rodriguez (.283) is certainly filling up the box score.  Tonight's line is an excellent example: 1-for-2, 2 BB, R, RBI.  Despite hitting just .159 in May, L-Rod still leads the Captains with 24 runs scored, ties for first with 3 triples and places second in both total and stolen bases.


Cheers.